Raven Memorial Pole

Raven Memorial Pole

Quick Facts

Amenities

1 listed

Wheelchair Accessible

This pole was provided by George Staney or Thomas Snuck to George Brady in the Tlingit Village of Tuxekan on Prince of Wales Island in 1903. The original pole was restored by the CCC between 1939-1942. The original pole was accidently burned in 1959 and a reproduction was carved shortly thereafter by George Federoff, a Mount Edgecumbe high school official, and Ralph Branson.
This pole is 21 feet tall, 2 feet wide and 2 feet thick. It is a Tlingit memorial or mortuary pole, a plain pole with a single figure on top, depicting Raven. Raven is perched on top of the pole, wings slightly outstretched. Much of the paint is worn off from the figure, but some bits of black paint are still visible. Raven is distinguished by its rather large, slightly crooked beak.
The person being honored by the erection of this pole was of the Raven moiety. The Tlingit traditionally placed their memorial poles on a ridge behind their village.   
The figures that appear on poles can generally be identified by their most distinctive features. The loon is distinguished from other birds by a white neckband,the eagle by a white head and large curved beak, the crane by a long narrow beak, the owl by a short, curved beak, the cormorant by a long narrow beak, rather oval in cross section, and the raven by a large, slightly hooked beak, rather narrow in cross section.